1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus which mounts a removable noncontact IC card.
2. Description of the Related Art
An IC card having an IC chip including a memory is small-sized, excellent in portability and storage capacity and is widely applied to various electronic apparatus such as a cellular phone and other portable electronic devices.
Particularly, a noncontact IC card which does not have a battery and includes an antenna for receiving a radio wave from an external apparatus for electromagnetic induction is a convenient type of a contact type IC card. The noncontact IC card is tried to be widely utilized in electronic money, a commuter pass or the like.
In recent years, the noncontact IC card has been variously tried to be applied to a portable electronic apparatus such as a portable telephone.
For example, JP-A-2001-223631 discloses a portable telephone including a noncontact IC card and a communicating means for transmitting and receiving information between the IC card and an external information apparatus.
The portable telephone receives a radio wave generated from an extreme apparatus referred to as an IC reader/writer and supplies electricity generated at an antenna in the IC card by means of electromagnetic induction to an IC chip. When the IC chip is supplied with power, the IC chip reads data stored in the IC chip per se and transmits the data to the IC reader/writer via the antenna. Thus, the IC card can wirelessly perform data communication with the IC reader/writer in noncontact.
JP-A-2001-223631 is referred to as a related art.
In the case that the IC card disclosed in JP-A-2001-223631 is applied to a portable telephone, it is general to integrate both of the IC chip and the antenna for the IC chip at inside of a case of the portable telephone. However, it is difficult to arrange the large antenna for the IC chip at a portion of the portable telephone containing various electronic circuits complicatedly and tightly with a limited space, and it influences the assembly of electronic circuits inherent to the portable telephone.
Further, when a user removes the IC card from the portable telephone in order to rewrite data or the like, the user may drop or lose the IC card. In the case, there is a crisis that a malicious third party who picks up the IC card closes the IC card to the reader/writer so that personal information stored in the IC chip is misused. Such a problem becomes serious in the case where when the IC card is used in electronic settlement of accounts, the electronic settlement of accounts is misused and money is illicitly drawn out.